General Information:

hyophthalmichthys nobilis Is the Scientific name for the Big Head Carp. The top part of its body is a dark gray color and eventually fades into a white color on its stomach. It has many dark spots of color on it's sides. This carp is rare because it has no teeth and its lower jaw pertrudes out further than its upper jaw. The eyes of the Big Head Carp are placed very low on it's face. The scales on the Carp are like the scales of a trout. People often time compare the Big Head Carp to the Asian Carp. The weight of a Big Head carp varies drastically there is a range from anywhere between ten pounds to a little over seventy which holds the world record of the biggest Big Head Carp. Just as the weight varies so does the height, it could range between sixty six mm to 323 mm.1

Detailed Description:

Big Head Carp have a protracted spawning period that extends from early spring through fall and some individual bighead and silver carp are spawning multiple times during a reproductive season.The bighead's consumption of zooplankton over phytoplankton is based on the mechanical aspects of the morphology of its filter feeding apparatus, and on its large suction volume during ingestion, which is much larger than that of the phytoplanktivorous silver carp.2

Habitat and Distribution:

Most Big Head Carp live in the Mississippi River, but they could live in any great lake. Big Head Carp were imported by catfish farmers in the 1970's to remove algae and suspended matter out of their ponds. During large floods in the early 1990s, many of the catfish farm ponds overflowed their banks, and the Asian carp were released into local waterways in the Mississippi River basin. The carp have steadily made their way northward up the Mississippi, becoming the most abundant species in some areas of the River.2

Impacts:

Big Head Carp do have a positive ecological effect because they get rid of phytoplankton.By feeding on the same zooplankton resources during summer and fall. Additionally, the grazing population of microcrustaceans is reduced at the time it is needed to prevent microalgae blooms. One economic impact of the Big Head Carp is as of 1995 it was ranked fourth in world wide production with a total of 2.8 billion pounds produced in that year. It is often produced and it isnt rare to buy in a fish market anywhere.

History:

The Big Head Carp is originally from China. They were first put here to reduce the population of algea in the 1970's. During flooding they began to spread out among the Mississippi Missouri Illinois and Ohio river

Control Measures:

Usually this specific species is not controlled because it helps us with controlling other types of species by getting rid of them. So we do not take control measures with Big Head Carp.

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